Yeah, I’m very much Team Lone Monitor. You can only see sufficient detail to work with text in a limited area in front of you. I can flip between desktops in sway faster than I can look from side to side. Honestly, my current monitor is already probably excessive in screen space for productivity stuff.
And the ergonomics are preferable if you’re using secondary monitors much. You ideally want the display in front of you:
Raise your monitor so the top is at or just below eye level.
Position it about an arm’s length away.
Centre it directly in front of you.
These principles align with ergonomic research on neutral posture and reduced upper‑limb load (Rempel et al., 2007).
I remember working on a dual monitor setup split in the middle back in the 1990s, and while it was never a huge issue, after a day of working, my neck was stiff from looking to the left.
Added bonus of a single-monitor setup: less power use, and you can work on a (more-portable) laptop without extra screens without breaking your workflow.
EDIT: Note that this is just talking productivity stuff. If you also play games or something on the machine, then having stuff in your peripheral vision can have value, just as in real life. VR rigs push that even further.
EDIT2: If someone does come up with some sort of software that makes useful use of peripheral vision for office stuff, someone will be selling VR products aimed specifically at this in short order. I remember in…the early 2000s maybe, when Intel was trying to convince businesses to buy 3D hardware, and had ads talking about how 3D chart viewing would increase productivity.
Yeah, I’m very much Team Lone Monitor. You can only see sufficient detail to work with text in a limited area in front of you. I can flip between desktops in sway faster than I can look from side to side. Honestly, my current monitor is already probably excessive in screen space for productivity stuff.
And the ergonomics are preferable if you’re using secondary monitors much. You ideally want the display in front of you:
https://worksmarthub.com/monitor-ergonomics/
I remember working on a dual monitor setup split in the middle back in the 1990s, and while it was never a huge issue, after a day of working, my neck was stiff from looking to the left.
Added bonus of a single-monitor setup: less power use, and you can work on a (more-portable) laptop without extra screens without breaking your workflow.
EDIT: Note that this is just talking productivity stuff. If you also play games or something on the machine, then having stuff in your peripheral vision can have value, just as in real life. VR rigs push that even further.
EDIT2: If someone does come up with some sort of software that makes useful use of peripheral vision for office stuff, someone will be selling VR products aimed specifically at this in short order. I remember in…the early 2000s maybe, when Intel was trying to convince businesses to buy 3D hardware, and had ads talking about how 3D chart viewing would increase productivity.
I use a single monitor but it’s 42" 4k.
I do a lot of stuff where I need 2 or more documents visible side by side and it’s next to impossible to work efficiently on a single small screen.